Ознакомьтесь с терминами текста

calculating device— вычислительное устройство

multiple ] — кратный

abacus— счеты

slide rule— логарифмическая линейка logarithm table [Ъдэпдт 'teibl] — логарифмическая таб­лица

calculus — исчисление; математический ана­лиз

general-purpose — общего назначения, универсальный

to cut out the human being altogether — полностью исклю­чить человека

to manipulate— обрабатывать, преобразо­вывать; управлять

data processing— обработка данных (ин­формации)

tabulate the census — занести данные по переписи (на­селения) в таблицу

means of coding— средства кодиро­вания (шифровки)

to punch the holes — пробивать отвер­стия

punched card— перфокарта to perform — выполнять, производить (дей­ствие); осуществлять; unit of data — единица информации keyboard terminals — терминал (вывод) с клавишным управлением

proliferation — размножение, быстрое уве­личение

2. Прочтите текст и скажите, о каких первых вычисли­тельных приборах рассказывается в нем.

 

Text 1. THE FIRST CALCULATING DEVICES

Let us take a look at the history of computers that we know today. The very first calculating device used was the ten fingers of a man's hands. This, in fact, is why today we still count in tens and multiples of tens.

Then the abacus was invented. People went on using some form of abacus well into the I6^,h century, and it is still being used in some parts of the world because it can be understood with­out knowing how to read.

During the I7^,h and I8'^h centuries many people tried to find easy ways of calculating. J.Napier, a Scotsman, invented a me­chanical way of multiplying and dividing, which is now the modern slide rule works. Henry Briggs used Napier's ideas to produce logarithm tables which all mathematicians use today.

Calculus, another branch of mathematics, was independently invented by both Sir Isaak Newton, an Englishman, and Leib­nitz, a German mathematician. The first real calculating ma­chine appeared in 1820 as the result of several people's experi­ments.

In 1830 Charles Babbage, a gifted English mathematician, proposed to build a general-purpose problem-solving machine that he called "the analytical engine". This machine, which Babbage showed at the Paris Exhibition in 1855, was an attempt to cut out the human being altogether, except for providing the machine with the necessary facts about the problem to be solved. He never finished this work, but many of his ideas were the ba­sis for building today's computers.

By the early part of the twentieth century electromechani­cal machines had been developed and were used for business data processing. Dr. Herman Hollerith, a young statistician from the US Census Bureau successfully tabulated the 1890 census. Hollerith invented a means of coding the data by punching holes into cards. He built one machine to punch the holes and others to tabulate the collected data. Later Hollerith left the Census Bureau and established his own tabulating machine company. Through a series of merges the company eventually became the IBM Corporation.

Until the middle of the twentieth century machines designed to manipulate punched card data were widely used for business data processing. These early electromechanical data processors were called unit record machines because each punched card contained a unit of data.

In the mid—1940s electronic computers were developed to perform calculations for military and scientific purposes. By the end of the 1960s commercial models of these computers were widely used for both scientific computation and business data processing. Initially these computers accepted their input data from punched cards. By the late 1970s punched cards had been almost universally replaced by keyboard terminals. Since that time advances in science have led to the proliferation of com­puters throughout our society, and the past is but the prologue that gives us a glimpse of the future.

 

3. Просмотрите текст еще раз. Ответьте на вопросы, ис­пользуя информацию текста.

1. What was the very first calculating device? 2. What is the abacus? 3. What is the modern slide rule? 4. Who gave the ideas for producing logarithm tables? 5. How did Newton and Leib­nitz contribute to the problem of calculation? 6. When did the first calculating machine appear? 7. What was the main idea of Ch.Babbage's machine? 8. How did electromechanical ma­chines appear and what were they used for? 9. What means of coding the data did Hollerith devise? 10. How were those elec­tromechanical machines called and why? 11. What kind of com­puters appeared later? 12. What new had the computers of 1970s?

4. Найдите в тексте английские эквиваленты следующих словосочетаний:

Вычислительное устройство; легкий способ вычисления; поэтому (вот почему); кратное десяти; изобрести механи­ческий способ умножения и деления; логарифмическая линейка; составить таблицы логарифмов; математический анализ; изобрести независимо (друг от друга); в результа­те; полностью исключить человека; кроме (за исключени­ем); обработка деловой информации; средство кодирова­ния информации; перфокарты; пробивать отверстия; оформить собранные данные в таблицу; работать с данны­ми на перфокарте; устройство, записывающее информа­цию блоками; единица информации; выполнять вычисле­ния; для научных целей; клавишный терминал

5. Вспомните значение следующих глаголов и подберите к ним производные. Например: to calculate — calculating, calculator, calculation.

To compute, to invent, to know, to multiply, to divide, to depend, to solve, to provide, to process, to code, to punch, to collect, to design, to store, to contribute, to use, to manipulate, to assemble, to connect, to consume, to rely, to divide, to mul­tiply, to inform, to instruct, to discover, to operate.

6. Переведите словосочетания, содержащие:
А. Причастие I — Participle I

Computers using vacuum tubes; the machine calculating mathematical problems; the computer keeping instructions in its memory; binary code storing data and instructions; the vac­uum tube controlling and amplifying electronic signals; com­puters performing computations in milliseconds; electronic pulses moving at the speed of light; students coding the infor­mation by using a binary code; devices printing the information; keyboard terminals replacing vacuum tubes.

Б. Причастие II — Participle II

The given information; the name given to the machine; the coded data; the device used in World War II; the invention named EN1AC; the machine called EDVAC; instructions kept in the memory; the engine designed for storing data; data stored in a binary code; vacuum tubes invented by J. Neumann; the general-purpose machine proposed by Ch. Babbage; the ma­chine provided with the necessary facts.

7. Ознакомьтесь с терминами текста 2.

analog computer — аналоговый ком­пьютер

digital computer — цифровой компь­ютер

to aim guns— наводить орудия на цель

to figure out — вычислять

at a fast rate — с высокой скоростью

memory / storage— запоминающее ус­тройство

to store data and instructions — запоминать информацию и команды

stored program computer — компьютер с занесенной впамять программой

binary code — двоичный код

condition — режим, состояние, условие

vacuum tube — электронная (вакуумная) трубка (лампа)

to amplify— усиливать

to perform computations — выпол­нять вычисления

8. Прочтите текст 2 и скажите, что вы узнали о первых циф­ровых и аналоговых компьютерах. Переведите текст.

Text 2. THE FIRST COMPUTERS

In 1930 the first analog computer was built by American named Vannevar Bush. This device was used in World War II to help aim guns.

Many technical developments of electronic digital comput­ers took place in the 1940s and 1950s. Mark I, the name given to the first digital computer, was completed in 1944. The man responsible for this invention was Professor Howard Aiken. This was the first machine that could figure out long lists of mathe­matical problems at a very fast rate.

In 1946 two engineers at the University of Pennsilvania, J.Eckert and J.Maushly, built their digital computer with vacu­um tubes. They named their new invention ENIAC (the Elec­tronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator).

Another important achievement in developing computers came in 1947, when John von Neumann developed the idea of keeping instructions for the computer inside the computer's memory. The contribution of John von Neumann was particu­larly significant. As contrasted with Babbage's analytical engine, which was designed to store only data, von Neumann's ma­chine, called the Electronic Discrete Variable Computer, or EDVAC, was able to store both data and instructions. He also contributed to the idea of storing data and instructions in a bi­nary code that uses only ones and zeros. This simplified com­puter design. Thus computers use two conditions, high voltage, and low voltage, to translate the symbols by which we commu­nicate into unique combinations of electrical pulses. We refer to these combinations as codes.

Neumann's stored program computer as well as other ma­chines of that time were made possible by the invention of the vacuum tube that could control and amplify electronic signals. Early computers, using vacuum tubes, could perform compu­tations in thousandths of seconds, called milliseconds, instead of seconds required by mechanical devices.

9. Просмотрите текст еще раз и ответьте на вопросы, ис­пользуя информацию текста.

1. When was the first analog computer built? 2. Where and how was that computer used? 3. When did the first digital computers appear? 4. Who was the inventor of the first digital computer? 5. What could that device do? 6. What is ENIAC? Decode the word. 7. What was J.Neumann's contribution into the development of computers? 8. What were the advantages of EDVAC in comparison with ENIAC? 9. What does binary code mean? 10. Due to what invention could the first digital computers be built?